A little snapshot

Have you ever had one of those moments where you're some place and you wish you could just somehow capture that moment including the sights, smells, and sounds? Well, tonight I had one of those nights. We have a Bible study at a slum called Loco that is just around the corner from the church. Every Friday night some of our staff members go there and host the study, and one of our guys, Martin, has just started taking on the teaching there. In order to boost attendance it was decided that I should allow my little white face do some promotion to bring people in to listen to what Martin was teaching. Well, tonight that plan worked.

Now that I've shared some background, I'll get to the point and share my little snapshot, a memory I hope I never will forget. I was sitting there in the middle of this little field on a bench surrounded by cow .... and I was just looking around taking everything in. There were these two really cool looking dead trees up against a sunset sky, rows of houses with clothes hanging on makeshift clothes lines, cows grazing all around us, a nice breeze, the smell of trash burning, the sounds of chickens and kids playing, a group of about twelve people sitting and listening to the message, and Martin teaching on how we need to love one another. It was such a cool time, and I'm so thankful that God allowed me that time to just take it all in and for a brief moment, just "be still".

Tonight's entertainment

So Bev told us about a meteor shower that is supposed to take place over the next three days. So we headed outside at about 9:30 just to check it out and by the time we came in about an hour later, I honestly didn't want to leave. I only saw a handful of meteors, but it was so awesome (especially towards the end when I got a blanket to lay down on and some sunscreen) that I didn't really want to go in. Jess, Bev, Judy, and I were just hanging out, us girls were laying down watching and we could here a disco playing some crazy African music in between the frogs croaking and the crickets chirping. It was an absolutely clear night and although the meteor sightings were sparse, it was awesome just looking at the stars and seeing the Milky Way. It was an awesome unexpected treat to finish off a pretty sweet day.

Prison play by play

So I always am trying to give everyone back in the States at least a little idea of life here in Uganda. And I realized I have said some things about the prison, but have not done it any justice by way of letting you know how it all goes down when we go there. Taking pictures there is a big no,no so you'll have to settle for my descriptions.

Julie (my translator and one who has been doing prison ministry since it began) and I head out at around 12:45 Tuesday afternoons. We drive over some lovely Ugandan roads (sarcasm emphasized) and reach a big gate where an ascari (guard) has to let us in and we drive through and on this long road we drive past different crops, some houses of people who live on the prison land, Lake Victoria is to our right and different herds of cows and goats are being herded. We reach where our prison is at (the condemned section) and we go and use a knocker on this HUGE door, seriously you look up at it and your heart sinks, someone looks at you through a little flap in the door and then they let you in. We check in with the guards there, drop off our keys, and sometimes they have to check our bags, and then we head to meet the ladies. In the condemned womens section, there are only about 9 ladies there right now, these are all ladies who have been accused of some have admitted to crimes such as murder. We enter into their part of the prison and if we're lucky they let us inside a room where they have a big mat on the floor. The ladies come and rush up to greet you with a special hug where it's kind of like how the french greet but with hugs instead of kissing. You take off your shoes and go and sit down on a mattress on the floor and then after some chit-chat we stand up and do some worship. I will tell you one thing, there are few things on earth as awesome and the worship you hear in Ugandan prisons, it is so full of joy when there is no obvious thing to be joyful about. We then sit down and I teach. Right now we're going through the stories in the book of Genesis in a quasi expository fashion. After the teaching we rock some coloring pages since many of them have never really colored before and it's a good release for them and then we head out at about 3.

It is seriously one of the highlights of my week, I think because it's just so different from everything else I do or ever thought I'd be doing. They're all awesome ladies and this Tuesday I think God opened new doors for us to get closer. I'm truly just so amazed that God has blessed me with such an awesome opportunity.

Holiday season begins

So the school system here revolves around terms and in between each term there is at least a one month long holiday. This term's holiday is just getting underway and I have to be honest, it's a little overwhelming. Personally, here at the compound the time of peace and quiet that typically comes during the day is on hiatus. For the next four weeks I'll get to hear kids screaming running up and down the stairs and "Kelli" being called through my windows. Ministry wise, this time also brings a whole other realm of craziness. We have several of our students who go to boarding schools and during the holiday they come back home to stay with friends and family, I humbly ask that you pray for me to have wisdom in dealing with the girls who are coming back because there are times that my gift of bluntness clashes with them wanting to do whatever they want. It should be an interesting month, and I just pray that God would guide every aspect of it and that I would take every opportunity I can to continue to make disciples.

The "thorn"

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 could quite possibly one of the most cited passages in all of scripture, at least in my life it is. In this passage, Paul is continuing his defense of his apostleship, ministry, and character to a church that he poured his blood, sweat and tears into, yet they bucked against his rebukes in his earlier letters and started attacking him. We discover in this passage how fourteen years before the letter was written he was taken up to see to the third heaven/paradise and was able to hear things that we could never even fathom. Because of how awesome it was to be given that experience, God knew Paul risked becoming prideful and therefore sent something to come upon him that caused him frequent pain and suffering. In the Greek, the word "thorn" actually means stake, and I love the way one commentator put it when he said, think of a stake being driven into and killing your flesh...ah I love that raw image that comes with that description. Even though Paul cried out to God to have Him remove that stake, God continually responded that Paul should find all satisfaction in the fact that God is using this thing for a purpose: for His glory. It was sent to Paul, not merely as something that God went, "Oh no! Well, might as well make the most of it". No, God sent this to Paul with the specific purpose of making him and and keeping him humble. And after Paul is told this, he didn't just tolerate or endure the suffering but rejoiced in it knowing that its end result would be him being refined and molded more into the image of Jesus.

God is so good to know us even better than we know ourselves. He can see into the darkest places of our hearts and see those sins that we tell no one about and we even try to forget about ourselves. I think of how in my own life one of those sins definitely is that nasty, hideous, revolting sin of pride. It's sobering to think that in those times when you truly consider yourself humble are the very times you are the exact opposite. For me, my "thorn" would be the physical one dealing with all the "disabilities" I have. Whenever a spiritual high happens and I begin to puff myself up, no joke, it's like "WHAM!" I'm taken out of commission for sometimes weeks at a time because my knee is in so much pain or someone comments about how I limp. There are few things more humbling then overhearing a little kid asking their mom "What's wrong with her leg?!" or some group of guys as you walk by making jokes about how you're "crippled". I'm not sharing this for sympathy or throwing a pitty party but for the exact opposite reason because after studying this passage, I'm reminded of so many huge lessons that I need to hold onto. I'm so glad God knows me and loves me enough to send me a "stake for my flesh" to keep me on my knees and it seems like every time I try to stand up and walk on my own and full of myself, he just sends me right back to my knees again and once again I'm reminded, "My grace is sufficient for you".

And then there was light

So all I can say is...WE HAVE POWER! After four days without power, we finally have our electricity back! Today we were sitting around and all of a sudden we hear a big truck and hoping with every inch of our hearts that it was the truck from the electric company, Jess got out a ladder to check and see if it was them, and it was! The afternoon was taken up with us peering out at them from the backyard getting stoked to finally have fans, hot water, and lights. After about an hour and a half and a couple of false alarms, we finally have power!

A little "situation"

Power (both literally and figuratively) is a funny thing here in Uganda. We randomly have power outages and Bev calls the power company and a while later it comes back on, but this weekend we encountered an unusual situation to most, but here it's not that uncommon. The other day our power went out and when Bev made her usual phone call they informed her of how people had been stealing the petrol that is used to power the transformer that powers our block, and therefore we have no way of receiving power at the moment. It has now been three days we've been without power and going through Sunday morning service was quite interesting, but we managed and it all worked out. I do have a highlight to the our current lack of power: last night I took a shower with freezing cold water (no power to run the water heater) and using a flashlight. I have to admit I'm now proud to say I can rough it, although I can't wait for the power to come back on. Through this experience I've definitely realized how spoiled I am even living here, because we do have power while a lot of the people who live here still don't, I feel guilty wining about it when that's all they've know...oh man I'm such a little princess sometimes it's really sad.